Men’s Finlayson Sweater: Part 1

Happy Monday evening! Today I’m sharing something new I made over the weekend for Brian, the Thread Theory Finlayson Sweater. I actually made two, and will share the second one later this week, when he lets me take pictures of it! And yes, he’s wearing his Papa Bear Joggers with the Finlayson here. 😉

I’ve been eying this pattern for a little over a year now. I discovered Thread Theory when I first started sewing and was looking for legit men’s patterns because Brian (rightfully) wanted to get in on my obsession. After all, you can only make so many dresses before you kinda want to make something a little more rough around the edges. While I’m at it, here’s the first Thread Theory garment I made back then, the Strathcona Henley. I’d never done a placket before, so you may want to avert your eyes from that part, ha.

But anyway, I digress. I found the Finlayson to be an easier sew than I anticipated, mostly because that twisty collar intimidated me. This happens a lot, I’ve noticed…I put off sewing something because I think it will be hard, but then it really isn’t. In this case, it may have been easy because 1) I wasn’t rushing anything and 2) Thread Theory has really excellent drafting and instructions. I wasn’t confused by anything and had no issues getting things to work as directed. I will say though, I think there may be an error in the directions in getting the under collar to actually be on the bottom, because it looks like its placed the other way around in the illustration. But I was not deterred by that and it caused no problems.

I used a medium weight french terry for this particular shirt, which I think worked out well, because you can see there is minimal pulling on the collar above, where it meets the shirt. It actually looks like more here than it does in real life, too. So moderately sturdy fabric is a good choice. I got this piece in a destash so I have no idea where it came from, but it is a nice weight.

The sleeves and bottom are finished with bands, which I like because I’m finally fast at doing those. 🙂 The only adjustments I made to the whole garment was adding about 1/2″ to the sleeve length since Brian has long arms, and taking a 3/8″ seam allowance in the bicep area of the sleeves, since he prefers a generally less restrictive sleeve.

I ended up needing to piece the collar together though, which you can kinda see in the back there. I only had about 2 yards of this fabric and was determined to make it work, even though the pattern calls for 2.5 yards. So, with creative piece placement and an hour later, I finally had it cut out. I hate when I need to do that, but it was worth it!

I’ll be back later with my second variation, for which Brian picked out the fabric from my stash (and I had more than enough so no need for agonizing over cutting!).

The collar element is super cool. I feel the same…sometimes things look harder than they really are, so I avoid making them for forever. And then I feel like a dope because they were a piece of cake. This looks great!

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